Non protuberance munition

ABSTRACT

A munition and munition for delivery of a payload to a target site wherein the munition has no protuberance to affect the flight of the munition in transit to the target site or true roll of the munition at the target site.

i] ted States ate eriin et a1.

[ 1 May 8, 1973 3,015,275 1/1962 Peyton etal................... ........102/70 2,96l,962 11/1960 Jackson................... ............l02/8X [54] NON PROTUBERANCE MUNITION [75] Inventors: Aaron S. Berlin, Wilmington, Del.;

Vincent Little, Fallston; Toney FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS Leadore, Havre De Grace, both of Md.

115,430 9/1968 Norway......;..........,................102/65 551,999 3/1943 GreatBritain..........................102/64 Primary Examiner-Verlin R. Pendegrass AttorneyHarry M. Saragovitz, Edward J. Kelly, Herbert Berl and Bernard J. Ohlendorf [57] ABSTRACT A munition and munition for delivery of a payload to a target site wherein the munition has no protuberance to affect the flight of the munition in transit to [73] Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army, Washington, DC

[22] Filed: Mar. 3, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 120,391

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the target site or true roll of the munition at the target site.

5 Claims, Drawing Figures [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,830,538 4/1958 Dodge......................................102/8 PATENTED MAY 81973 //V VE IV TORS Aaron .5. Berlin Vincent 0. Little Toney E. Leadaw NON PROTUBERANCE MUNITION DEDICATORY CLAUSE The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to us of any royalty thereon.

Our invention relates to a new method, such as a grenade, and method for delivering a payload to a target site; the payload being a material such as chemical agent composition, explosive composition, or incendiary composition.

Prior art grenades utilized a safety handle and/or fuze which extended past the periphery of the grenade and remained intact with the grenade after the grenade was thrown. The aforementioned handle and/or fuze on the prior art devices presented the problem that the flight of the grenade and a true roll after striking the ground at the target site were affected which resulted in inaccurate delivery to the target. Our invention was conceived and reduced to practice to solve the aforementioned problem and to satisfy the long felt need for a grenade which has no protuberance to effect the flight and roll of the grenade and enables an accurate method of delivery ofa payload to a target site.

A principal object of our invention is to provide a grenade and method of delivery thereof wherein a low cost fuzing means is employed which is adaptable to a plurality of configurations, a munition which is safe to use, and a munition which has no protuberance'after being thrown.

Another object of our invention is to provide a munition and a method of delivery of a payload to a target site wherein the munition has no protuberance after being thrown and the munition can have the safety pin reinserted after having been removed to avoid the necessity of throwing the grenade after a change in plan.

Other objects of our invention will be obvious or will appear from the specification hereinafter set forth.

FIG. 1 is a view of the fuze and safety latch to be mounted in our munition body assembly.

FIG. 2 is a view of the firing pin assembly for our munition.

FIG. 3 is a view of our assembled munition prior to being thrown and in the unarmed position.

Our invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, will now be described in detail as follows.

The fuze means shown at 12 is mounted within the munition body shown at l by any conventional and convenient means, such as threads 13. Fuze means 12 consists of an aluminum shield 23 having a conventional ignition mix 22; conventional delay charges 19,

20, and 2]; conventional starter mix 18; and conventional primer l7 superimposed on shield 23. The firing pin assembly shown at 2 in FIG. 2 is held under spring tension by means of firing pin spring 16 above primer 17 in the unarmed position. Firing pin assembly 2 is retained in'the unarmed position by the insertion of shaft 29, which is integral with arming pin head 14. into hole 3 of the firing pin assembly which forces spring like sections 27 of the firing pin assembly outwardly, due to slots 4 formed in the firing pin assembly, to rest against shoulder 28 to prevent firing pin striker 5 from moving downward. Arming pin head 14 is held under spring tension by arming pin spring 15, and each above described fuze component is retained in alignment within the fuze means by pins 8, which are fixedly mounted on munition body 1 by any conventional means being inserted through the larger opening of keyhole type slots 9 of safety latch 7 and safety latch 7 slid forward to place the recess 32 around rod 31 and the narrow opening of the keyhole slots, which are smaller in opening size than the head of pins 8, surrounding pins 8 to secure the safety latch to the munition body to retain the fuze components within fuze means 12 and handle 33 secured under pin 11 by projection 25 integral with handle 33. After insertion of the fuze means within the munition body 1, as described above, void 26 is filled with a predetermined payload and a closure plug not shown in the drawing, fixedly inserted within the munition body 1 in the bottom thereof by any conventional means, such as threads. An additional safety feature is provided in our munition by inserting safety pin 10 within safety latch 7 to secure the safety latch to munition body 1 in a nonmovable position, as shown in FIG. 3, and prevent premature arming of the munition. Conventional pull ring 24 is fixedly connected to safety pin 10 to facilitate removal or insertion of safety pin 10 when desired. To deliver a payload to a target site by means of our munition, the munition is gripped in the throwing hand and safety pin 10 is removed in the conventional manner by pull ring 24 by the opposite hand; safety latch 7 is moved rearward to the position'wherein pin 8 is in the large opening of keyhole slot 9 by the hand opposite to the throwing hand; and the munition is thrown. Upon release of the munition from the hand tension induced by spring 15 forces arming pin head 14 upward to eject safety latch 7 and the arming pin assembly, including arming pin shaft 29, from the munition. Upon removal of arming pin shaft 29, sections 27 of the firing pin assembly spring inwardly to be released from shoulders 28 to permit striker 5 to plunge downward, as a result of the tension induced by spring 16, to detonate primer means 17. Detonation of primer means 17 ignites starter mix 18 which in turn ignites delay charges 19, 20, and 21 which in turn ignite the ignition mix 22. Ignition mix 22 burns through aluminum shield 23 to ignite the payload within munition void 26. Holes 6 are provided in the disc 30 integral with firing pin assembly 2 for gas escape. Prior to throwing the munition, the fuze can be returned to the safe position by sliding safety latch 7 to the forward position and re-inserting safety pin 10. While a spherical configuration for our munition is shown in the drawing, any suitable configuration for a given application is selectable within the skill of the art.

It is. obvious that other modifications can be made of our invention, and we desire to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims. I

We claim:

1. A munition for delivering a payload to a target site comprising a body means to enclose the payload; a fuze means having a plurality of components mounted within the body means to activate the payload; and a safety latch means adapted to retain the plurality of components of the fuze means in alignment within the fuze means in an unarmed state, said safety latch means being slidable and removable prior to transit of the munition to the target site and said fuze means comprises an aluminum shield means adapted to support a column of mix components; an igniter mix superimposed on the aluminum shield means and adapted to burn through the aluminum shield means to activate the payload; a plurality of delay mixes superimposed on the igniter mix adapted to delay the ignition of the igniter mix a predetermined period of time; a starter mix superimposed on the delay mixes adapted to ignite a first layer of the delay mixes; a primer means imbedded within the starter mix adapted to ignite the starter mix upon activation of the primer means by a striker means; a firing pin assembly means having the striker means integral therewith and being held under spring tension above the primer means by a plurality of spring like members of the firing pin assembly being forced against a shoulder of the fuze means adjacent to the firing pin assembly, said spring like members being forced against the shoulder by a shaft means being inserted in the center of the firing pin assembly, said shaft means being integral with an arming pin assembly; and an arming pin assembly located under spring tension above the firing pin assembly, said arming pin assembly being adapted to withdraw the shaft means from the firing pin assembly to release the firing pin assembly to activate the primer means.

2. The munition of claim 1 wherein a plurality of holes are provided in a disc member integral with the firing pin assembly to permit gas escape.

3. A spherical uniform hand grenade which comprises a fuze assembly insertable into a recess in the body of said grenade below the peripheral surface for detonation thereof and including:

a fuze train having as a part thereof a pin head biased outwardly of said fuze assembly and means for initiating detonation of said grenade upon release of said pin head,

a handle extending peripherally about said grenade body and overlaying said pin head thereby restraining movement thereof,

one end of said handle formed to be releasably and pivotally held by,

a handle pin supported by said fuze assembly,

a safety latch slidably carried by said handle and provided with a sidewall having formed therein a cutaway recess for engagement with,

a rod carried by said fuze assembly,

whereby when said latch is slid in one direction said sidewall recess will be out of engagement with said rod and said biased pin head will eject said handle and latch thereby initiating the detonation train of said grenade while providing a spherical grenade configuration.

4. The grenade according to claim 3 wherein said safety latch is releasably carried on said handle by a pair of pins projecting outwardly of said handle and engaged by a pair of oppositely disposed keyway slots formed in said latch.

5. The grenade according to claim 4 further including a removable safety pin extending through said sidewall and said fuze assembly for preventing movement of said safety latch. 

1. A munition for delivering a payload to a target site comprising a body means to enclose the payload; a fuze means having a plurality of components mounted within the body means to activate the payload; and a safety latch means adapted to retain the plurality of components of the fuze means in alignment within the fuze means in an unarmed state, said safety latch means being slidable and removable prior to transit of the munition to the target site and said fuze means comprises an aluminum shield means adapted to support a column of mix components; an igniter mix superimposed on the aluminum shield means and adapted to burn through the aluminum shield means to activate the payload; a plurality of delay mixes superimposed on the igniter mix adapted to delay the ignition of the igniter mix a predetermined period of time; a starter mix superimposed on the delay mixes adapted to ignite a first layer of the delay mixes; a primer means imbedded within the starter mix adapted to ignite the starter miX upon activation of the primer means by a striker means; a firing pin assembly means having the striker means integral therewith and being held under spring tension above the primer means by a plurality of spring like members of the firing pin assembly being forced against a shoulder of the fuze means adjacent to the firing pin assembly, said spring like members being forced against the shoulder by a shaft means being inserted in the center of the firing pin assembly, said shaft means being integral with an arming pin assembly; and an arming pin assembly located under spring tension above the firing pin assembly, said arming pin assembly being adapted to withdraw the shaft means from the firing pin assembly to release the firing pin assembly to activate the primer means.
 2. The munition of claim 1 wherein a plurality of holes are provided in a disc member integral with the firing pin assembly to permit gas escape.
 3. A spherical uniform hand grenade which comprises a fuze assembly insertable into a recess in the body of said grenade below the peripheral surface for detonation thereof and including: a fuze train having as a part thereof a pin head biased outwardly of said fuze assembly and means for initiating detonation of said grenade upon release of said pin head, a handle extending peripherally about said grenade body and overlaying said pin head thereby restraining movement thereof, one end of said handle formed to be releasably and pivotally held by, a handle pin supported by said fuze assembly, a safety latch slidably carried by said handle and provided with a sidewall having formed therein a cutaway recess for engagement with, a rod carried by said fuze assembly, whereby when said latch is slid in one direction said sidewall recess will be out of engagement with said rod and said biased pin head will eject said handle and latch thereby initiating the detonation train of said grenade while providing a spherical grenade configuration.
 4. The grenade according to claim 3 wherein said safety latch is releasably carried on said handle by a pair of pins projecting outwardly of said handle and engaged by a pair of oppositely disposed keyway slots formed in said latch.
 5. The grenade according to claim 4 further including a removable safety pin extending through said sidewall and said fuze assembly for preventing movement of said safety latch. 